It came as no surprise when the House once again passed the PRO Act in early March. Although under current conditions there are not enough Senate votes to pass this bill into law, the “nuclear option” of removing the filibuster could grease the skids to take this to the finish line.
We noted in the February edition of INK a list of NLRB General Counsel decisions rescinded by acting GC Peter Ohr. Here is an updated list and a few other actions, capturing some of the additions since then.
NLRB Chairman Lauren McFerran’s dissent in an employee handbook case in February took to task the current board’s allowance of using a disclaimer to reconcile discrepancies between provisions in the handbook that may be at odds with union employees with a collective bargaining agreement. Once the board is constituted in a pro-union fashion, expect to see many of the handbook gains achieved by management during the prior administration eroded significantly.
The Trump administration took steps to reign in inconsistent and overly aggressive enforcement by field employees of the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor. The incoming deputy administrator of the WHD, Jessica Looman, revoked the instructions of the prior administrator, turning the 50 district offices loose to proceed at will. A March 8 memo from Looman delegated to regional administrators authority to greenlight their staff’s use of:
- “Enhanced compliance agreements” in settlements, which generally require more egregious violators to take steps to ensure adherence to wage laws;
- Visa certifications for undocumented workers who are victims of severe workplace crimes;
- Cooperation agreements with state agencies to share information;
- “Sharing letters” between WHD and other government agencies investigating the same workplace; and
- Requests to withhold payments to government contractors who owe workers wages.
